In this episode, we discuss the differences between long guns and handguns, common myths associated with firearms, and why long guns are better than handguns for self defense and home defense. We also discuss the difference between a rifle and a shotgun.
00:00:02.000Now the Founding Fathers understood that only an armed people could truly be a free people.
00:00:09.000So this week I invite you to join me and Mug Club resident gun aficionado Mr. Guns and Beer as we tackle the subject of firearms from every angle possible.
00:00:22.000Today's episode we take on all of the basics that you need to know About rifles and shotguns, this is Long Guns 101.
00:01:00.000So we did pistols, we're going to do common myths associated with firearms, and we'll also do a ballistics gel video with some pretty cool cameras.
00:01:06.000But long guns encompassing rifles and shotguns.
00:01:09.000If you're not a gun person, again we're trying to provide you with an entry point.
00:01:13.000Let's explain to people first, I guess, what you would be taking into account why you might need a long gun, right, and what might be appropriate.
00:01:19.000So, long guns increase lethality, generally speaking.
00:01:23.000The cartridges they fire are more powerful, they have longer barrels, it has more energy.
00:01:52.000But so, your point of contact is here, you also have a contact point on your cheek, your hand here, and then out here, so it's much easier to control and get accurate hits than it is with a pistol that's just out here in space.
00:02:04.000Additionally, depending on the type of firearm you get, an AR-15, for example, your capacity can go up as well.
00:02:09.000Right, and so really with long guns, a little bit different from handguns, we were talking about a bedside firearm, and you recommended, you said if people are getting their first gun, you recommend a handgun because it can be more multi-purpose.
00:03:20.000They're like, well isn't it the same thing?
00:03:22.000Yeah, so shotguns, generally speaking, are going to fire 12-gauge or 20-gauge, those are the most common.
00:03:27.000And what that means is it's just a larger projectile, and most shotgun rounds, not all, have multiple projectiles in them, whether they be birdshot or buckshot.
00:03:36.000Birdshot, generally speaking, is designed for exactly what it sounds like, birds.
00:03:40.000Buckshot is designed for what it sounds like, animals.
00:03:42.000Buckshot typically is going to have anywhere from 8 to 12 pellets in it, which is individual pieces of metal, whereas birdshot can have tons.
00:03:51.000People say, spread, if you just aim a shotgun in the general direction, right, it's going to eviscerate it.
00:03:56.000And typically, you have two different types of shotguns, which this one here is a pump-action shotgun.
00:04:00.000This is a Remington 870, probably the most manufactured shotgun in the world.
00:04:05.000You have to manually work the action with each shot.
00:04:19.000Arguably the best semi-automatic shotgun in the planet.
00:04:22.000And this one is semi-automatic, meaning every time you pull the trigger, it will cycle by itself, rather, and self-load until it's out of rounds.
00:04:49.000For more on these, go to Watchtowerfirearms.com.
00:04:52.000Veteran owned and the last true American firearm manufacturer.
00:04:56.000Let's go, we'll shoot all of these, but I guess we might as well, it's pretty easy to pick which one you want, you know, a rifle or a shotgun.
00:05:04.000Any of these would be suitable for home defense.
00:05:07.000Now, for shotguns, if you're using defensive loads, they're going to have more recoil, for sure, especially than an AR-15.
00:05:14.000An AR-15 is a very light recoiling gun, whereas a shotgun, if you're using slugs or buckshot, is definitely going to have some punch to it.
00:05:21.000So if you're somebody who's recoil-averse, just keep that in mind as well.
00:05:26.000And look, I will say, I don't want to veer you one way, but an AR-15 does make a lot of sense for people looking for a rifle for home defense.
00:05:31.000It is versatile, it can be used for hunting in the proper scenarios, very easy to control, very light recoiling, very reliable model of firearm, and there's a reason that it's incredibly popular.
00:05:42.000It's something that's pretty easy for people to use.
00:05:44.000I mean, right, it'd be tough for someone to go wrong with a good quality AR-15.
00:05:48.000Yes, assuming it's a good quality one, that's your point, yes.
00:05:51.000And we do know with Watchtower they are, and we do know that there are a lot of them, but there are some out there that are awful.
00:05:56.000I mean, that bullet would hit them sideways.
00:06:00.000Now, like Hugh's saying though, I take a lot of new shooters out just doing what I do, and a lot of them, knowing nothing about guns, will gravitate to the AR-15s just because they're very pleasant to shoot, and they don't even understand that it has more stopping power than pistols.
00:06:15.000They're just looking at it because it's more pleasant to shoot, easier to shoot well.
00:06:18.000So let's really quickly, what we'll do is we have the magic of a time warp.
00:06:22.000We'll clear the table and then focus on kind of a basic AR model and we'll do a safety check, explain the basics in and out and then we'll go to the rink.
00:06:59.000But it's going to be most likely in this configuration here with our bolt carrier group, which is this part here, forward.
00:07:05.000So basically the way to check and see if it's loaded is we're going to pull on our charging handle and then on the left side of the rifle we have this piece here which is our bolt lock and bolt release and so doing it on camera is a little weird but you're going to push in and lock that back At that point, you can look in the chamber, verify that it is unloaded, and proceed accordingly.
00:07:28.000The other controls that you need to know about here are going to be your safety.
00:07:31.000On this gun, it's ambidextrous, meaning it's on both sides of the gun.
00:07:34.000However, many of them will be left side only.
00:07:40.000Unfortunately, this one doesn't have a third position, but if we had our rights, we would have a third position that would go forward, and you'd be able to fire it.
00:07:48.000At first I was like, hey, watchtower sent us free guns, there's a sponsor, but then I realized it was a rights thing.
00:09:21.000But the AR is something that a lot of people probably want to focus on because it's very popular and it's very likely that they'll be choosing it.
00:09:27.000And one thing that people here notice, it's a lot louder than it is recoiling.
00:09:32.000And so do you think that's maybe kind of why people get the wrong impression of it?
00:10:48.000So that's for having a consistent sight picture when you look downrange.
00:10:52.000If you notice with sights, like this one has backup iron sights, if you had your iron sights up and you move your head around, it'll look like where you're shooting moves.
00:11:00.000So they want your point where you actually mount the rifle on your face to be consistent.
00:11:08.000Just throwing that out there because I know someone's saying it in the comments.
00:11:14.000So, where you actually want to place your hand, obviously this one we have a light which is going to drive that to some extent, but seated, honestly you just want it wherever it's the most comfortable and you can get the most stable.
00:11:27.000Some of you are shorter, might have to come back here.
00:11:29.000Some of you are real tall, may have to go out here to this grip that we have.
00:11:33.000One thing you will see, it's a leftover from the 80s military training, is a lot of folks
00:12:15.000At this point, take our magazine, bullets downrange.
00:12:20.000At this point we can either charge the charging handle, just like the pistols we talked about, or we can just hit this button and now the rifle is loaded.
00:15:02.000But this is meant for people who kind of really like tricking out their ARs and sometimes you run into compatibility issues where it's a little more finicky with magazines.
00:15:11.000This is their base model here that they sent to us from Watchtower, an American firearms manufacturer.
00:15:16.000Everything here in the USA and they really do have a great mission statement.
00:15:20.000A reason for founding the company, veteran-owned, and not just, by the way, veteran-owned, but people who are aggressively pro-Second Amendment, and you have to worry about them.
00:16:08.000And we'll have, Gerald, I'm sure we'll have pointers, but like you said, it does seem, as far as from a defensive perspective, if you're sitting, It's pretty tough to screw up.
00:18:38.000Going over firing the AR-15 standing, just like I talked about with the stock, you want to adjust it to you.
00:18:44.000This is more applicable standing than it is from a bench.
00:18:48.000So kind of a rule of thumb, if you will, is you want it to be about the length When you grip it to where your elbow joint is and then adjust from there.
00:19:43.000When you have your rifle set up for home defense or whatever the case may be, like ready to go, you'll have the stock already in that position.
00:19:48.000When you pick it up, it'll just naturally go there.
00:19:51.000So, one thing that... And you want your cheek, you're saying, is this right along here?
00:20:47.000There are different optics that are different heights, so if you're uncomfortable with the way it is, you can change that.
00:20:53.000And then with your non-dominant hand, there's different schools of thoughts on this, similar to like we talked about with pistols in terms of being all the way out or being a little bit bent.
00:21:03.000I personally like to be slightly bent, so my arm's going to be somewhat like that.
00:21:07.000So it's more important than when you're sitting?
00:21:10.000Because what you're doing is you're using that hand to pull the rifle into your shoulder.
00:21:16.000This hand is doing virtually nothing in terms of Controlling recoil.
00:21:20.000All you're doing with this hand is manipulating switches.
00:21:22.000That's one of the reasons that sometimes learning on lever actions are valuable, because that, when you learn to do it, this, they taught me, this hand should basically, there should be no weight.
00:21:29.000This is supporting it, so that's how you can operate it quickly.
00:21:32.000And that kind of drilled it in my head, where sometimes with a semi-automatic, you don't really think of it, you're just thinking, just grab it and support it.
00:21:40.000And, uh, again, you want to pull it back into your shoulder to mitigate that recoil.
00:21:45.000And, uh, other than that, I mean, that's pretty much it.
00:21:47.000You'll see some competition shooters shoot like this, but the reason they shoot like that and they're not pulling it back so hard is because they don't care about follow-up shots.
00:21:55.000Uh, whereas in the real world, you want to put as many shots on target as possible until whatever caused you to start shooting stops.
00:25:20.000You definitely are, if you do it correctly, you're more stable with your hand out further because all of your movements are a little bit more precise on the end.
00:25:30.000But you will fatigue quickly, which is why you'll see it a lot in the competition world where they're running a stage for 20 seconds and it doesn't matter.
00:25:38.000You're not going to see a Marine in a firefight in the real world doing that.
00:27:27.000I mean, I think you guys probably know we've fired a pump shotgun, but it probably would be pretty cool for people to see this Benelli at work.
00:31:17.000And by the way, if you feel that this has enlightened you, or served you in any way, hit the like button, subscribe, and of course go check out Mr. Guns and Gear channel.
00:31:25.000Thank you to Watchtower for providing these firearms.
00:31:28.000The one we're most excited about is dispelling a lot of those gun myths.
00:31:32.000Things like the .22 bouncing around in the body cavity.
00:31:35.000Things like the firearms were only meant for muskets.
00:32:22.000That's one thing also, too, people may need to know, a lot of times, sometimes guns that are meant for precision shooting, they have tighter tolerances, right, because they want to be precision instruments as opposed to That's one of the myths we'll sort of get to.
00:33:21.000In all seriousness, if you actually have a tight lower like that, sometimes if you free up the front pin here, it will loosen the rear one, which is exactly what I just did.
00:33:29.000So, for normal maintenance, that's probably all you need to do for your lower receiver.
00:33:33.000And then at this point you're going to pull your charging handle.
00:35:32.000So a lot of people think it'll attract dirt with the oil and it'll stay in there, which is true, but the oil suspends it and it still works fine.
00:35:55.000Additionally in the AR-15 it has what's called a start chamber which is this portion right here and we're gonna want to make sure that we get into there with some sort of cloth.
00:36:05.000Is that because you get a lot of buildup specifically there?
00:36:07.000Yes, the way the AR-15 works, that spot gets very, very dirty and it's also right where your rounds are going into the chamber, so you kind of want that to be clean.
00:36:15.000And you said that with an AR-15, we didn't necessarily need this with the handgun, but you do recommend maybe a couple drops of oil, a thinner coating oil?
00:36:26.000Petroleum based lubricant now on the bolt here.
00:36:29.000Same thing I just sprayed it with that CLP and make sure you want to get a bolt face as well.
00:36:34.000The reason is that right there is where the cartridge is going to lock onto the rim and you want that to get a good purchase so that way you can pull it out reliably.
00:36:44.000And then here on the bolt carrier group, same thing, we're going to spray in there because that is where this bolt is moving back and forth inside there.
00:36:50.000Sort of like a piston engine if you guys are familiar with that.
00:37:01.000Realistically, if you have a good AR-15, Easily, a thousand rounds should be able to run reliably, provided it's lubricated.
00:37:09.000If you add a suppressor, it speeds that up.
00:37:11.000You have to clean it a little bit more.
00:37:13.000But what I would recommend is if you're using it as a defensive gun or a hunting gun, something that you want to depend on, I would clean it after each use.
00:37:25.000So I'm just going through now and wiping everything up.
00:37:28.000And then can you do us a favor and put it back together so people see the order and we can get those right in different close ups because I know with some people these little, it can be intimidating because there's some little tiny pieces but once you know it, it really does become second nature.
00:38:45.000Alright, so what we're going to do is take our bolt, and you want your bolt to be, excuse me, the extractor, facing to the right, because that's how it goes here on our upper receiver.
00:38:54.000And again, with a mil-spec one, you cannot do that backwards.
00:40:36.000Anything petroleum-based should be good, generally speaking, but we're going to put it on our bolt here.
00:40:41.000Probably should have done it before I did it, but if you didn't do it before you did it, like I just did, you can actually put it right down on the cam track and it'll do the exact same thing.
00:40:52.000I mean you can put a little bit more and then also on the rails here, you can see on the bolt carrier grip there's rails, so that's what's actually making contact in the upper receiver.
00:41:01.000And we don't need to worry about this being too wet?
00:41:25.000There's a little groove in your upper receiver that these two pieces go in.
00:41:30.000So you're going to put it in, go down like that, and then to put your bolt carrier group in, you want your bolt forward, all the way forward, because if it's not, it won't go in.
00:41:38.000And we're going to align this gasket, which is this portion right here, with the groove in our charging handle.